On the finish of the yr, for the final 30 years or so, I might write a column making tech-related predictions for the brand new yr. These columns had been comparatively correct since I used to be in a spot to see new applied sciences behind the scenes destined for launch within the coming yr. This yr, I used to be aware of many new applied sciences within the works below NDA that would have a major influence in 2024. Nevertheless, as an alternative of a prediction column, I wish to concentrate on a extra nuanced model of this concept and talk about a couple of outstanding themes that can drive the tech business within the coming yr.
In late 2021, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, introduced his imaginative and prescient for the metaverse, and within the following yr, that was one of many fashionable themes for 2022. In late 2022, Sam Altman of OpenAI launched the primary AI chatbot and unleashed the primary important AI utility that would have an effect on each side of our lives. That led to AI being the large theme in 2023.
In mid-2023, Apple launched its distinctive VisionPro headset and set in movement one other clue of a brand new know-how that can influence 2024. Apple’s headset and different producers within the works will make their debut in 2024. These headsets will drive essentially the most concrete applied sciences that can assist outline and perceive how digital worlds, whether or not VR, XR, or AR-driven, can have an effect on individuals’s lives.
However the extra necessary pattern associated to those headsets in 2024 will likely be a mix of AI and the metaverse. We are going to see how AI and the metaverse complement one another and ship gorgeous new digital functions within the new yr.
In case you have adopted VR in gaming, that AI know-how has been applied in video games from the start. AI algorithms are central to “what if” actions in all VR video games. AI can be central to AR. Quickly, while you have a look at a constructing by AR glasses, you will note information concerning the constructing culled by AI to present the viewer real-time data on what they see by these glasses.
Nevertheless, in 2024, as highly effective XR headsets hit the market and software program builders create devoted applications for them, you may count on AI to influence and affect these new apps sooner or later.
One other theme that will likely be large in 2024 is the transfer to push some AI inferencing to the sting. As we speak, virtually all LLM inferencing is finished within the cloud and on highly effective server clusters that take immense power to course of. Nevertheless, the tech business is engaged on {hardware} and software program to dump a few of this inferencing to the sting and use PCs to course of firm information on this method.
I just lately spoke to a CTO of a serious firm who’s creating what he calls “edge clusters,” the place he ties firm PCs collectively to function backend inferencing engines. These run at evening when staff should not utilizing them within the workplace. This idea of PCs used as edge-based AI inferencing engines may decide up steam within the new yr, particularly when Intel and its companions introduce their AI PC fashions. This concept is important when an organization must solely inference its personal firm information and doesn’t must inference commonplace open market LLMs.
I wrote concerning the AI PC just lately and shared Intel’s imaginative and prescient for this idea:
“One among Intel’s bolder strikes is to rebrand the PC for our AI future. In Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger’s opening keynote, he launched what he calls the AI PC. He positioned it as a revolutionary idea that brings AI capabilities to private computing. The Intel Core Extremely processors, codenamed Meteor Lake, would be the first to combine a neural processing unit (NPU) for environment friendly AI acceleration and native inference on PCs.
Meteor Lake will likely be constructed utilizing Intel’s 4 nm course of and makes use of its NPU as an AI accelerator. The Intel Core Extremely processor begins a brand new structure branding that designates it as Intel’s strongest processor for PCs and servers that add AI boosts. Meteor Lake is scheduled to seem in merchandise early in 2024.
Intel’s AI imaginative and prescient is to make use of its subsequent era of processors to energy PCs and servers. However the important thing to understanding how necessary that is for Intel is that whereas its new chips will enable extra highly effective AI processing within the cloud, they will even allow PCs that use the Core Extremely processors to deal with complicated AI duties domestically.”
For Intel and its companions, AI PCs would be the subsequent large factor in 2024, which will even turn out to be a central theme of this new yr. By the way in which, these new AI PCs may drive a major PC refresh in enterprises beginning subsequent yr as firms do extra native AI processing as an alternative of utilizing pricey backend servers.
The third tech theme I see in 2024 will likely be how know-how will have an effect on the U.S. 2024 presidential election. We already know the way it affected the 2020 election, and AI is certain to present everybody on this election new AI instruments to bolster or thwart the result of this election.
I foresee deep fakes, nefarious nations utilizing it to push agendas, events utilizing social media, political-themed publications, and others to drive a degree of confusion and make it arduous for individuals to know what’s actual and what’s faux. On this sense, I’m afraid of the function AI and know-how, basically, will play in our political scene in 2024.
Whereas this final theme projection is a “Debbie Downer”, 2024 may have some strong themes like AI and the metaverse becoming a member of forces to drive a clearer imaginative and prescient for digital worlds and the AI PC, giving enterprises extra instruments on the edge to deal with extra AI functions. This leads me to consider that 2024 will certainly be a memorable yr in tech for a lot of causes.
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